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Proofs 

of 

Immortality 



ITS NATURALNESS 
AND POSSIBILITIES 




J. M. PEEBLES, M.A., M.D., Ph.D., LL.D. 



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JJroote of Smmortalttp 



ITS NATURALNESS, ITS POSSIBILITIES 



.and. 



NOW-A-DAY EVIDENCES 



REFUSED A HEARING 

By Rev. Canon Girdlestone and other churchmen connected with the 

Victoria Institute and Philosophical Society of Great Britain. 



By J. M. PEEBLES, M. D., M. A., PK. D., LL. D. 



'The stone which the builders refused is become 
the head-stone of the corner." 

—Psalm CXVIII-22. 



FIFTH EDITION 
1914 



PEEBLES PUBLISHING CO. 
5719 Fayette St. 
Los Angeles, California, U. S. A. 






Copyrighted in the 
Office of the Registrar at Washington, D. C. 
by J. M. PEEBLES, M. D. 
1914 



•/* 



JUL 14 1914 

©CI.A376662 

2mi t 



Introduction 



The eminent John Wesley, and other noted men of 
the past, believed in the immortality of animals. 
Their existence is certainly dual. They have instinct, 
sensation, and they reason on a certain plane of con- 
sciousness. But whether immortal or not, they de- 
serve our tenderest care. 

Surgeons, intelligent, up-to-date men in psychology, 
are well aware that in amputating a limb they do not 
remove the invisible, the more substantial, spiritual 
limb. 

There is a peculiar worm — the nais — which, when 
cut into several sections, will reproduce itself from 
every section, showing conclusively that there was a 
vital entity in each section capable of reproducing 
this re-growth. Amputate the leg of a salamander, 
and it will be reproduced to the minutest details, 
joints, veins, nerves. And why? Because the real 
entity — the invisible leg — was not removed. The ma- 
terial at best is but a shadow. The vital leg re- 
mained, serving as the attractive force for the bio- 
1)lasmic cells to rebuild the exact form of the displaced 
eg, even to the muscles, tendons, arteries, bones, 
each and all in their proper relations. The dog has 
been known to attempt to lick the lost foot of his 
master. 

When the material arm or finger of a man is am- 
putated, or torn off by machinery, the vital, substan- 
tial arm remains — and the person is often conscious 
— intensely conscious, of the presence of this invisible 
arm — and yet, not invisible to the clairvoyant. 

Man is a duality, and more, he is a trinity in unity, 
constituted of a physical body, a soul-body, and that 



divine entity — the uncompounded conscious spirit — 
God incarnated and finited. 

If the animals and insects of earth exist in the 
spirit world, which is plausible, it does not prove that 
they will so progress, or so exist consciously in the 
celestial or angelic world, destination being consid- 
ered the measure of aspiration. The ideal does not 
belong to the lower kingdoms. 

Materialists, and some materialistic spiritists, 
have endeavored to account for the origin of man 
by "matter and force," or "matter and motion." 
Some writers jumble together motion and force. 
They are not equivalents. Motion is not substantial ; 
it is only the act of a body in changing its position 
from a state of rest, and necessarily ceases to exist 
when the body ceases to move. The persistent state- 
ment of "molecular motion" only provokes the in- 
quiry, "What caused the motion?" The substantial 
alone can cause motion, and the substantial is none 
the less substantial because of its inconceivable at- 
tenuation and ethereal intangibility. Steam, though 
invisible, is an acknowledged force — a substance — 
a substance that drives the piston in the steam engine. 
Force, though unseen, is indestructible. The soul- 
body, though unseen by the material eye, interper- 
meates the physical body. It is an intermediate ve- 
hicle between spirit and matter, and the force which 
penetrates and moves it is the spirit. And this spirit, 
ethereal, intangible and uncompounded, is substan- 
tial substance — not gross matter, but divine sub- 
stance — a vital spark from the infinite life — a ger- 
minal entity, non-composite, non-compounded, and 
hence necessarily indestructible, for no thinker, no 
scientist, no inspired biblicist, would presume to 
predicate destruction of indestructible substance, 
which indestructible substance involves life, sensa- 
tion, thought, self-consciousness and progress in 
manifestation and so we scientifically and logically 
prove the immortality, not of the soul, but of the 
spirit, which spirit is the offspring of, and poten- 



tially and parentally related to the infinite Spirit 
of the universe — God, Immanuel with us and Im- 
manuel in us. 

The following translation of the speech of Cato 
on the immortality of the human spirit can scarcely 
be sufficiently admired for its conciseness, purity 
and elegance of phraseology : — 
"It must be so. Plato, thou reasonest well. 
Else whence this pleasing hope, — this fond desire, — 
This longing after immortality? 
Or whence this secret dread and inward horror 
Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul 
Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us : 
'Tis heaven itself that points out a hereafter, 
And intimates eternity to man. 
Eternity! — thou pleasing, dreadful thought! 
Through what variety of untried being, — 
Through what new scenes and changes must we 

pass! 
The wide — the unbounded — prospect lies before me; 
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it. 
Here will I hold : If there's a Power above us 
(And that there is all Nature cries aloud, 
Through all her works), He must delight in virtue; 
And that which He delights in must be happy; 
But when, or where? 
I'm weary of conjectures, — this must end them. 

Thus am I doubly arm'd: my death and life — 
My bane and antidote — are both before me. 
This, in a moment, brings me to an end ; 
But this informs me I shall never die. 
The soul, secure in her existence, smiles 
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. 
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years ; 
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, — 
Unhurt amidst the war of elements, 
The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds." 



EXPLANATORY 

The following letter, published in London Light, 
April 29th, 1906, mentions the circumstances and 
suggests some of the reasons why this paper was 
denied a reading by the council. 

"Mark well" (using the words of a Masonic de- 
gree) . While a guest at the dining-club of the secre- 
tary, Rev. Dr. Hull, in London, some four years ago, 
he expressed the wish that I would "prepare a pa- 
per" to read, or to be read, before the Philosophical 
Society of Great Britain. I promised to do so at 
some future time. That time had now come. It was 
prepared and personally presented to the secretary, 
Rev. Dr. Hull, and, according to the custom of this 
scientific institute, constituted of some of the most 
distinguished scientists and Christian religionists of 
England and of other countries, my paper was pub- 
lished in pamphlet form by this Philosophical Soci- 
ety and sent out to the members for consideration 
and discussion, before the assembled body, after the 
reading. 

And these are the preliminary words, appearing 
at the commencement of their pamphlet publishing 
the address : — 

"While it is the Institute's object to investigate, it 
must not be held to endorse the various views ex- 
pressed, either in the paper or discussions. 9 ' 

But just how this body of learned men could "in- 
vestigate or discuss" a paper that the assembled 
council, manipulated by a Rev. Church Canon, would 
not permit to be read, is a mystery worthy of the 
thirteenth century ecclesiasticism. 

The Rev. Canon Girdlestone was substituted to 
give an address upon the "Resurrection" — the resur- 
recton of Jesus' body — in the place of my "paper." 
This address in proof of the resurrection of the 
material body of Jesus Christ, was tame, painfully 
musty with old theological platitudes, yet soundly 
orthodox. At the conclusion of this Canon's lecture, 



this Philosophical Society, in session, gave me a 
unanimous vote of thanks for my paper, which they 
had forbidden to be read. Is it strange that illus- 
trious scientists and liberalists the world over have 
called "Christian pulpits, cowards' castles"? 

Wisely did Milton write: "Let truth and false- 
hood grapple. Whoever knew truth put to the worse 
in a free and open encounter?" 

The president of this Victoria Institute and Philo- 
sophical Society of Great Britain is the Right Hon- 
orable, the Earl of Halsbury, Lord Chancellor D. C. 
L., F. R. S., etc., and these gentlemen constitute the 
council. English-speaking people in all lands have 
a right to know their names: — 

Rev. Principal James H. Rigg, D. D. 

Rev. Dr. F. W. Tremlett, D. D., D. C. L., Ph. D. 

Very Rev. H. Wace, D. D., Wean of Canterbury (Trustee). 

Rev. Chancellor J. J. Lias, M. A. 

General G. S. Hallowes, f. c. 

Rev. F. A. Walker, D. D., F. L. S., F. R. G. S. 

Captain E. W. Creak, C. B., R. N., F. R. S. 

Thomas Chaplin, Esq., M. D. 

Rev. Canon R. B. Girdlestone, M. A. 

Theo. G. Pinches, Esq., LL. D., M. R. A. S. 

Ven. Archdeacon W. M. Sinclair, M. A., D. D. 

Gerard Smith, Esq., M. R. C. S. 

Commander G. P. Heath, R. N. 

Rev. Canon Tristram, M. A., D. D., LL. D., F. R. S. 

Rev. G. F. Whidborne, M. A., F. G. S., F. R. G. S. 

His Excellency Lieut.-General Sir H. L. Geary, K. C. B., R. A. 

Walter Kidd, Esq., M. D., F. Z. S. 

Edward Stanley M. Perowne, Esq. 

Martin Luther Rouse, Esq., B. L. 

Rev. R. Ashington Bullen, B. A., F. G. S. 

Rev. John Tuckwell, M. R. A. S. 

Major Kingsley O. Foster, J. P., F. R. A. S. 

Lieut.-Colonel George Mackinlay. 

General J. G. Halliday. 

Here is my explanatory letter of reproof, appear- 
ing in the columns of London Light, a very widely 
circulated Spiritualist journal, under the heading: 

"THE REJECTED ADDRESS BY DR. 
PEEBLES." 

It is with a modified yet righteous indignation 
that I wish to put on record a recent remarkable and 
unique experience. 



I have been for fifteen years a promptly paying 
member of the London Victoria Institute and Philo- 
sophical Society of Great Britain, of which body the 
Earl of Halsbury is president, but a paper upon 
"Immortality" that I had prepared to be read at a 
meeting of that society on Monday, the 17th inst., 
was, at the last moment, rejected by the council in 
session. 

Though yearly admiring many of the essays upon 
science and religion read and discussed by this dis- 
tinguished body, I felt that the temple of this con- 
servative Institute needed a "living stone," a pres- 
ent-day inspiration; and from the best and highest 
motives I prepared to furnish it under the name of 
"Immortality : Its Naturalness, Its Possibilities and 
Proofs." 

The thinking, progressive souls of the twentieth 
century do not care whether the old Moabites were 
polygamists or monogamists; whether Samson 
chased the foxes or was himself chased by foxes ; but 
they do care and pray for the termination of this 
brutal war between pious Christian Russians and 
the more enlightened "Pagan" Japanese; they do care 
about the unemployed in London and the street-cor- 
ner beggars in New York; they do care about the 
uneducated, half -clad orphan and the weeping moth- 
er mourning over the cold, dead form of a loved 
child. With no knowledge of a future life, many 
Rachels are mourning without consolation ! 

Seriously pondering upon these momentous sub- 
jects, I selected Immortality, with its legitimate 
corollaries, as a fit subject for my paper. It was 
duly prepared, and handed to the secretary, Pro- 
fessor Edward Hull, LL. D., F. R. S., on April 3d, 
and, according to the custom of the Victoria Insti- 
tute, it was printed in pamphlet form, and sent out 
to many of the members, that they might know its 
contents and be prepared for the reading and the 
discussion. The paper was in the hands of the of- 
ficials and members for two weeks. All seemed well. 

10 



In the meantime the secretary very courteously 
wrote to me, knowing the condition of my throat and 
lungs, and expressed the hope that I would be able 
to personally read the paper. The tickets of invita- 
tion had been printed and distributed. 

The hour had come. The people had assembled. 
The reporters were at the table — then, and then 
only, was I summond into the council room and 
gravely informed that the council had decided that, 
"for good and sufficient reasons," the paper was not 
considered appropriate to be read" before the mem- 
bers and invited guests. Using the Daily Mail's 
phrase, the "address was closured before it began," 
and the Rev. Canon R. B. Girdlestone, M. A., was 
substituted to deliver an address on the "Resurrec- 
tion." The most of my friends, city officials and 
journalists, indignantly left the lecture hall. 

The council having refused to accept my paper, 
treating of the evidences of the Divine existence, 
and proofs from ancient testimonies and present- 
day spiritual phenomena, in demonstration of a fu- 
ture conscious life, I withdrew it, and it is now my 
property. Spiritualism was the crux, and yet, at the 
head of the printed pamphlet — sent out by the Insti- 
tute — was this passage: "The Institute's object be- 
ing to investigate, it must not be held to endorse the 
various views expressed either in the papers or dis- 
cussions." But, inasmuch as it is the professed pur- 
pose of this body to "investigate," the inquiry nat- 
urally arises here: Could the members of the In-» 
stitute "investigate and discuss" a paper which was 
forbidden to be "read"? 

I need not dilate upon the shock, or the crushing, 
mortifying position in which this belated decision 
placed me. It is passing, and almost mirthfully 
strange that this council and the learned members 
had previously received, and had discussed, a paper 
on the "Venomous Snakes of India;" and another 
paper (see Vol. XXXIII) of twenty-seven pages 
was read by the Rev. F. A. Walker, D. D., upon "Hor- 



11 



nets," particular stress being laid upon the point as 
to what "period of the year do queen hornets leave 
their nests." 

Think of it! A distinguished body of ministers, 
clergymen, and titled scientists permitting a paper 
to be read upon the characteristics of "Hornets" and 
"Wasps," yet rejecting a paper treating of the an- 
cient and present-day proofs of human immortality ! 
As I have said, Spiritualism was the crux, and yet 
these clergymen should not be frightened at Spirit- 
ualism, when many of the brainiest and most schol- 
arly men of the world are Spiritualists — when the 
illustrious Dr. Jowett, Master of Balliol College, Ox- 
ford University, in a sermon upon "Faith, Doctrine, 
and Immortality" (p. 319), says: "The spirits and 
forms of the dead seem to hover around us and to 
be about our bed and about our path, sometimes for 
a shorter and sometimes for a longer period after 
they have been taken from us." Jesus asked (I 
quote from memory), "How much, then, is a man 
better than a sheep?" and I shall ever say, when 
thinking of the Victoria Institute and Philosophical 
Society of Great Britain, how much better is im- 
mortality, with its angel ministries and spirit mes- 
sages, than the "hornets and wasps" and the "snakes 
of India." the characteristics of which this Institute 
allowed to be described in a paper (of twenty-seven 
pages) by Sir Joseph Fayrer, M. D., LL. D. 

The extraordinary treatment I have received from 
the council of the Victoria Institute excites in me 
not the least anger, but rather the fraternal feeling 
of a most condescending pity. And yet, owing to 
my abiding and unbounded faith in God and the ful- 
filment of His mighty purpose in creation, I believe 
in the future enlightenment and final salvation of 
the members of this Institute's council; basing the 
beautiful belief in a degree upon this sacred scrip- 
tural passage: "The Lord preserveth the simple." 

J. M. Peebles, M. D. 



12 



The Rejected Address Upon 

IMMORTALITY: ITS NATURALNESS, ITS 
POSSIBILITIES AND PROOFS 



By J. M. PEEBLES, M. D., M. A., Ph. D., LL. D. 



THE PRELUDE. 

The poet, Leigh Hunt, when late in life was called 
the "immortal boy." Youth flushed with hope has 
its work in front of it; while old age, rich in experi- 
ences, calmly awaiting the summons, has a grand 
charm of its own — a serene sanctity comparable to a 
moss-covered cathedral, within which are devotion, 
meditation and uplifting music. 

Old age does not hinge upon the number of years 
lived. The honorable and venerable who have lived 
in obedience to the divine laws of nature, and in 
continuous activity, have some noble purpose in 
view, have no sense of the phrase "outlived their 
usefulness." These last are their best days. There 
is a desert palm in our American west-lands famous 
for a single flowering bud. The bud unfolds, sheds 
it fragrance and dies; but the palm tree itself, 
straight and stately, continues to grow. Life and 
death are not only natural, but beautiful in their 
time and place. 

The falling and disappearance of the body is inci- 
dent to the birth of the spirit, which when passing 
into the many-mansioned house of the Father, often 
signals backward and whispers, "I still live." 

Having passed by a number of years the mile- 
stones that mark the octogenarian's life journey, 
and facing — as I calmly do — the fading sunset of 
mortality, it is only natural that I should very seri-^ 
ously ask, Does man conscientiously survive death? 

13 



And if so, what awaits him beyond that cold, grim 
portal? 

In this essay, involving some of the testimonies of 
the past and some present evidences of a future con- 
scious existence, looking to immortality in the sense 
of endlessness of being, I do not appear in the role 
of the teacher. Far from it. Nor do I profess in 
the least to have exhausted a subject that has occu- 
pied the attention of eminent minds in all ages; but 
I appear rather in the nature of one thinking aloud 
— one talking confidentially to himself upon a great, 
upon an all-important subject; or as one openly ex- 
posing his thought-out conception and matured con- 
victions with some of the more potent reasons for 
entertaining them as shields and supports, as helps 
to faith and knowledge, while nearing day by day 
the boundary of mortality. 



THE ADDRESS 

The greatest and most all-incisive word that ever 
fell from human lips in English-speaking countries 
is — God! The Christ did not say, "God is a spirit/' 
but "Pneuma Ho Theos" God is spirit; and spirit, 
embodying consciousness, life, purpose, wisdom and 
will, lies at the foundation of and is the original gen- 
erating cause of all things from the amoeba up to 
man, who stands upon the very apex of earth's or- 
ganic pyramid, the crowning glory of nature. 

Belief in the existence of God is intuitive, and in 
some form and under some name is as universal as 
the races and tribes of humanity. Circumnavigating 
this planet several times and meeting some of the 
lowest specimens of the human species, such as the 
Bushmen of Australia, the natives of New Zealand, 
the black tribes of Central Africa and the wood- 
fiber-clad natives of the Pacific Islands, I have no 
hesitation in stating emphatically that these bar- 
barous and semi-barbarous tribes have some con- 

14 



ception of gods, or of an overruling, Supreme Being, 
to whom they rear rude altars and have some unique 
forms of worship. 

It may be further stated that the God-idea springs 
up in human nature spontaneously, and belongs to 
the moral necessity of things. It is deeply rooted 
in the conscious minds of all reasoning human intel- 
ligences. It is intuitional if not axiomatic, and re- 
quires in support of faith therein, no more labored 
and logical proofs than does the existence of space in 
which minor objects move and planets revolve. 

True, there are arches with imperfect keystones; 
there are temples illconstructed to architectural ad- 
justment ; there are art failures from color-blindness. 
These, though misfortunes, are not irremediable. 
And then, there are quite intelligent men born with 
such coronal brain-depressed organizations as to put 
them in the category of postponed possibilities of 
full-orbed men. These doubt God, deny the historic 
Jesus, question a future life, antagonize religion, 
and strive to find a moral sustenance in the leprosy 
of a dreary, atheistic materialism. 

The much-exploited phrase in the vocabulary of 
agnosticism, "The Unknowable" rooted in the rela- 
tivity of knowledge, has few charms for the erudite 
thinker or religious philosopher. Gravitation, the 
omega of our knowledge in physics, is unknowable. 
We only know something of its effects. Neither 
scientists nor psycho-physicists can, with the most 
delicate instruments, verify the presence of ether, 
yet they say it must exist, because light and heat 
cannot pierce and pass through perfect emptiness. 
But whether ether be homogeneous world-stuff, or 
whether it consists of Leibnitz's monads or of dis- 
crete units filling all space, no one knows. It is un- 
knowable. And yet the most advanced philosophers 
and astronomers believe in it as a frictionless pres- 
ence, permeating space, — believe in it not only as a 
possibility, but as an indispensable necessity. 

"God," exclaimed the enthused Neo-Platonian 

15 



Proclus, "is Causation." Causation implies intelli- 
gence and energy. And conscious intelligence 
towards a given end implies purpose, wisdom and 
power. These are everywhere manifest in this 
measureless and orderly universe. And unquestion- 
ably, finite order could no more plan and constitute 
itself than books could print themselves, or than 
chaos could plan and constitute Kosmos. Neither 
could order and chance exist together at the same 
time in a universe of unconditioned Causation. They 
are direct contraries. Nor could there be order and 
immutable law without an all-energizing and over- 
ruling Author — which Author, God, makes life, evol- 
ution, order, harmony and morality possible. Fur- 
ther, the fixed motions of the universe, in all their 
intermingling, tortuous varieties (yet of inherent 
unity in origin), are strictly mathematical — strictly 
governed by law, else no eclipse could be astronom- 
ically calculated decades of years before its appear- 
ance. 

Furthermore, God is not a heartless absentee from 
this pulsing, mind-thrilled universe of life. He is 
imminent in the opening bud, in the planetary spaces 
and in the hearts of all reasoning men as the highest 
ideal, the Final Perfection. Indeed, the Divine Ex- 
istence, as the self-conscious Reality, is self-evident, 
and that which is self-evident to sane minds and 
savants does not depend upon or require a multi-. 
plicity of evidences for verification. 

It was Descartes who, founding positive know- 
ledge upon self-consciousness, affirmed this : "Cogito 
Ergo Sum" (I think, therefore I am). This was 
not a petitio principii — a begging of the question, as 
ultra materialists have repeatedly stated, because in 
thinking, something is done, which something (the 
reverse of nothing) implies a conscious actor, the 
existing Ego. I think — I cognize — and cognition, 
related to intuition, knows — knows something of 
Causation, for it is ever existing and ever manifest- 
ing as cause and effect. Intuition (I purposely avoid 

16 



the phrase, "First Cause") being the immediate per- 
ception of fundamental and essential truth, ante- 
cedent to and independent of reason, education or 
experience, knows — satisfactorily knows that un- 
caused Causation must be a finality. 

Had the philosophizing Proclus said, "God is con- 
scious Causation," he would nearly have reached the 
exalted moral altitude of the Christ, who declared, 
"God is Spirit." Evidently God, while pure in 
spirit, is both personal and impersonal, center and 
circumference — measureless — infinite. His oneness, 
his inscrutable individuality, plus personality with 
its attributes, is predicated of consciousness, pur- 
pose and will, and his Divine Personality implies 
energy, life, design, determination, power, wisdom 
and love. These are the major attributes of person- 
ality, and are manifest from seashore sands to the 
stars and suns that dot the mighty immensities 
above us. 

Be sure, we can never comprehend the incompre- 
hensible; we may never know God in his absolute 
totality, but we may know and do know enough of 
him — enough of this great, good, Almighty Spirit- 
Presence, through revelation and intuition and 
through the stupendous works of nature, to call 
forth our unbounded confidence and profoundest 
reverence. Encircled in the Divine embrace and 
leaning upon the loving bosom of this infinite Ten- 
derness — this Divine Reality — is my spirit's abiding 
trust and rest. Though "He slay me, yet will I trust 
in Him." 

The great, the mightiest phrase of all, however, 
is as aforesaid, "God is Spirit," pure, immutable, 
absolute and omnipresent; and man, being made in 
the image of God, is necessarily a spiritual being. 
We are all his offspring, according to both Grecian 
poesy and apostolic inspiration. And it is the spirit 
that is immortal, and not the soul Mark well this 
point: not the soul. It is no more astronomically 
incorrect to speak of the "sun rising in the morn- 

17 



ing," than it is to religiously speak of the "immor- 
tality of the soul/' No such phrases as the "im- 
mortal soul" or the "immortality of the soul" occur 
in either the Old or New Testament. Philo Judaeas, 
as did several Grecian and Roman writers of the 
first centuries of Christianity, differentiated "soul" 
and "spirit;" so also did Paul when speaking of "the 
quick and powerful word of God," that "divided 
asunder soul and spirit." And again, in writing to 
certain Thessalonians, he exclaimed: "I pray God 
that your whole spirit, soul and body be pre- 
served blameless until the coming of Jesus Christ." 

This triune manifestation of expression relating 
to man in his essential wholeness is not especially 
peculiar to Biblical psychology, for several Greek 
philosophers are reported to have taught, though 
in different phraseology, the same rational truth. 
The Roman Marcus Aurelius, while urging that life 
was a unit — that the sensations were subjective — 
taught also that the "soul (the soul-body) was a re- 
fined, corporeal organism." 

Alford, in his Greek Testament, declares that 
Pneuma is the highest and distinctive part of man, 
while the Psuche, the lower or animal soul, contains 
the desires and passions which we have in common 
with the brutes. 

Auberlin, a Tubingen graduate and Bassel pro- 
fessor of theology, states that "the spirit is the spir- 
itual nature of man as directed upward, and is capa- 
ble of a living intercommunion with God, while the 
soul is the diffused, quickening power of the body, 
as in animals, and pertaining to, is excitable through 
the senses." 

Porter, on "The Human Intellect," declares that 
the word "soul" differs from spirit as the species 
from the genus ; souls being limited to a spirit that 
either is or has been connected with a body or ma- 
terial organization, while a spirit may be applied 
to a being which has not at present, or is believed 
never to have had, such physical connection. 

18 



Professor Schubert, a follower of Schelling, states 
that "the soul is the inferior part of every intellec- 
tual nature, the interior organism, while the Spirit 
is that part of our nature which tends to the purely- 
rational, the lofty and the divine." 

Delitzsch, in his Biblical Psychology, assures us 
that the "psychical functions of the soul are types 
of the spiritual functions, the broken rays of their 
colors. But the soul is no Ego. It is to be distin- 
guished from the spirit. The inner self-conscious- 
ness, which forms the background of the spirit- 
copied functions, is that of the spirit, and is related 
to the Infinite Spirit from which it has its origin." 

Man, in his completeness, it must be remembered, 
is a trinity in unity, and this idea of the trinity runs 
like a continuous golden cord through all things, vis- 
ible and invisible — Father, Logos, Holy Spirit — 
cause, means, effects — the root, the trunk, the fruit- 
age — the self-conscious spirit, the particled soul- 
body, the physical human organism — Man ! 

How true the Biblical teaching: God breathed 
into man the spirit (ruach) of life, and he became 
a living human being. When the disciples saw 
Jesus walking upon the sea, they said, "It is a spir- 
it." In this phrase they expressed the common be- 
lief of those times in the conscious presence of the 
spirits of the dead. Says the French academician, 
Renan: "The group that pressed around Jesus on 
the banks of the lake Tiberias believed in appari- 
tions and spirits. Great spiritual manifestations 
were present. ... All believed themselves to be 
inspired in different ways ; some were prophets, some 
teachers, and others spake in tongues." These won- 
derful works were wrought in the very face of ag- 
nostic Sadduceeism and sacredotal Phariseeism. 
The cries of "Beelzebub! and of Magic!" were of 
no avail. "Judge ye of yourselves," were the fervid 
words of the Christ. Soul (Nephesh, in the He- 
brew) has been a sort of a verbal vehicle for many 
ambiguous ideas. In Biblical language, souls are 

19 



born and souls die. "The soul that sinneth, it shall 
die;" and the New Testament speaks of "Him who 
was able to destroy both soul and body in hell; ,> but 
the destruction of the spirit, inbreathed by God, 
was never taught (if memory serves me) by any 
classical scholar or any of the early Christian 
writers. 

The ruach (Hebrew), pneuma (Greek) is not 
an accumulation of aggregates — not a bundle of 
thoughts, emotions and warring attributes; but is 
noncomposite, uncompounded and indestructible — an 
involutional influx from God, the One — the All — who 
alone hath underived immortality. 

The apostolic writers considered men in their 
fleshly and soul-bodies as dominated by the spirit, 
and this analysis into the somatic, the psychic and 
the pneumatic is clearly maintained in their writ- 
ings. Jesus, in soul-agony, cried out, "Father, into 
thy hands I commend my spirit." God is not pro- 
nounced the Father of the bodies nor of the souls of 
men, but he is called the "God of the spirits of all 
flesh." When the first martyr, Stephen, fell be- 
neath the stones of murderers, he exclaimed, "Lord 
Jesus, receive my spirit;" and dying, he joined "the 
spirits of just men made perfect." "There is a spirit 
(conscious force) in man," exclaimed the prophet, 
"and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth it un- 
derstanding." Just what the inherent essence of 
this spirit — this Ego — is, besides being conscious, 
finite, limited in power, and uncompounded, we may 
as well say, with the old Roman Ovid: "Causa 
Latet; vis est notissima (fontis)" — "The cause is 
hidden ; the effect is visible to all." And this "visible 
effect" of the spirit is consciousness, purpose and 
will, manifesting through the soul, or rather the 
soul-body, and called by Paul the "spiritual body;" 
by theosophists, the "astral body;" by psychic re- 
searchers, the "etheric body;" and by cultured ideal- 
ists, the "subjective body." 

This soul-body, or subjective body, as believed by 

20 



Spiritualists (I have here used the word "Spiritual- 
ists'' as the direct antithesis of materialists), is a 
substantial, organized entity, an aggregate of sub- 
limated elements, and the counterpart in form of 
the physical body. Every permanent form neces- 
sarily has a germinal attracting center, and the ger- 
minal magnetic center of the soul-body is the con- 
scious, intelligent spirit, inbreathed from God at the 
beginning of this planet's cycle of human exist- 
ence. Further, this soul-body, the intermediary be- 
tween the physical body and the abiding spirit, is 
particled and constituted, in part at least, of the 
emanations from the infinitesimally minute atoms, 
electrons, unseen aromas, imponderable elements, 
and the subtle essences eliminated from the earthly 
body in its varied attitudes and activities. This 
particled, fluidic soul, or soul-body, is the vehicle, 
the etheric clothing of the immortal spirit. It is this 
body that is resurrected out of the physical, perish- 
ing body at death. The resurrection from mortality 
into immortality is perpetual. "Now that the dead 
are raised," said Jesus, "Moses showed at the bush." 

There never was a more irrational, illogical the- 
ory put forward, or a greater mental failure exhib- 
ited relating to immortality, than that of a few 
necromancy practitioners who have attempted to ac- 
count for the existence of spirit, or of spiritual beings, 
from the conjunction and molecular interaction of 
two unknowables, matter and force; both, so far as 
we know, non-conscious. Nothing is absolutely 
known of the ultimate nature of matter. 
Much is said and written of its properties and qual- 
ities ; but these, known only in terms of mind, point 
to a primordial, unexplored substratum — nothing 
more. The primordial foundation of immortality, 
then, can be logically predicated and substantiated 
only of the two factors, self-conscious Spirit and ten- 
uous, invisible substance — the One in two expres- 
sions. 

The structural plan of nature, through intermedi- 

21 



ate, physical forms, each and all afire with the Di- 
vine purpose, was undoubtedly from the animalcule 
up to man — man, with his feet fast upon the earth, 
and his head, in inspiration and thought, among 
the blazing stars, symbolizing his destiny. 

Students of nature, physiology, psychology, psy- 
chometry and phrenology — especially the latter — in 
their varied experimental demonstrations, such as 
applying the galvanic current to certain brain areas 
in both men and animals, witnessed, through this 
stimulation, the production of muscular movement, 
and later determined the location of organ and func- 
tion. They were at first almost amazed at the emo- 
tions and faculties aroused, evolved, and so located 
in particular cranial centers. 

None acquainted with the investigations of Gall, 
Spurzheim, Combe, Fowler, the late Dr. John Elliot- 
son (president of a medical society and professor at 
the University of London), Professor Hidjig of 
Baden, Dr. Hollander, Professor Ferrier, Alfred R. 
Wallace, naturalist and scientist, and others can 
doubt that the brain is the home, the center-station 
of the conscious spirit. Exciting definite portions 
of the cranial areas in monkeys, there were produced 
effects corresponding to the located organs claimed 
by phrenologists as manifesting certain aptitudes 
relating to the mental characteristics of mankind, 
the cerebellum, relating to the physical nature and 
animal activities, the front brain to the intellect, 
and the top-brain, or coronal region, to hope, faith, 
conscience, reverence and spirituality. And these, 
the highest organs of the head, are located directly 
over the great central seat of the self-conscious 
spirit. True, Dr. Carpenter contended that the back- 
head was the seat of the intellect, but the Doctor 
years ago was himself a conservative back-chapter 
in the revelations of psychological and phrenological 
research. It is admitted that the most of the ex- 
periments by Ferrier were with monkeys and other 
animals, but monkeys think, have intellects, and they 

22 



reason upon their plane of instinctive development; 
and yet, unquestionably, they lack the top-brain 
parlors, the moral and spiritual nature. They never 
transmit their knowledge; never show remorse of 
conscience; never pray, nor "chatter," so far as we 
know, of the hope and joyousness of a fadeless im- 
mortality. 

It must be evident, not only to psychologists, 
phrenologists and psycho-physicists, but to every 
studious and profound investigator of the brain, that 
while it is a congeries of organs, every organ implies 
a function, and every function indicates a present 
purpose being fulfilled, or a prophetic purpose to 
be actualized and fulfilled in a future state of ex- 
istence. 

It may be further stated that the cortex of the 
brain, the instrument of the spirit, develops from 
the interior outward, the lower, deeper stratum be- 
ing the first to unfold and that^ there are embryonic 
cells in the process of formation representing the 
higher nature, suggesting moral and spiritual possi- 
bilities not yet achieved — possibilities which demand 
a future realm of existence for their unfoldment 
and realization. 

Summarizing the foregoing, as relating to immor- 
tality, we see that God is Spirit ; and, human beings 
being made in the image of God, are necessarily 
moral and spiritual beings, and spiritual beings (not 
originating in matter) naturally survive death. 

The universality of the belief in immortality in- 
dicates that it has a natural basic foundation in the 
human constitution, the central force of which is 
spirit. 

This life does not give sufficient time for the ad- 
justment of errors and malicious-planned wrongs in 
the social and moral channels of sowing and reap- 
ing. Remorse, with the lowest classes, often merges 
into a sort of personal Utopia. They smile while 
they murder; hence a disciplinary life hereafter is 

23 



necessary to adjust the character-equilibriums be- 
tween cause and effect, retribution and reformation, 
justice and mercy. 

The deep, fervid desire for knowledge, progress 
and perfect felicity, cannot under any circum- 
stances, be attained in this brief life; therefore the 
necessity for a future life, for the consummation of 
whatever is noblest and purest in this preliminary 
and checkered state of existence. 

Human bodies, like trees in a forest, grow, attain 
their limits and fall, while the conscious spirit of 
the thinker, the idealist, the ^moralist, the philos- 
opher, though reaching a ripening old age, has barely 
touched the life-limits of capacities and mighty pos- 
sibilities. Therefore, the demand for a future life, 
with its superior opportunities and its attending 
heavenly helners. 

Today's highest delights are found in the widen- 
ing fields of knowledge, in solving the mysteries of 
nature, in conquering intruding environments, in 
the projection of good thoughts, in the reaching up- 
ward for loftier ideals ; but these ideals are never at- 
tained in this life ; therefore the moral necessity for 
a future life where ideals are attained and faith 
ripens out into fruition. 

The life-principle, centered in the simple cell of 
the amoeba, prophesied of higher forms. And these, 
in connection with the upward trend of things, from 
the less to the more complex, prophesied of man. 
And the ordained and immutable law of unfoldment 
being interminable, rational man today, afire with 
hope, aspiration, possibility and spiritually tethered 
to and affiliated with the Infinite Cause, prophesies 
of immortality, without which this life is a painful 
blunder — a meaningless failure — a tantalizing 
dream, and morality, madness itself. 

Said the great Grecian : "When, therefore, death 
approaches a man, the mortal part of him, as it ap- 
pears, dies, but the immortal part departs, safe and 

24 



uncorrupted, having withdrawn itself from death." 
—Plato. 

"As they who run a race are not crowned till 
they have conquered, so good men believe that the 
reward of virtue is not fully given till after death. 
. . . Not by lamentations and mournful chants 
ought we to celebrate the funerals of the good, but 
by hymns ; for in ceasing to be numbered with mor- 
tals, they enter upon a diviner life." — Plutarch. 

"If my body be overpressed, it must descend to 
the destined place; nevertheless my spirit shall not 
descend, but, after being a thing immortal, shall fly 
upward to high heaven." — Heraclitus. 

"A man ought to have confidence then about his 
spirit, if during this life he has made it beautiful 
with temperance, justice, fortitude, freedom and 
truth he waits for his entrance into the world of 
spirits as one who is ready to depart when destiny 
calls. I shall not remain, I shall depart. Do not 
say then that Socrates is buried ; say that you bury 
my body." — Socrates. 

"The origin of spirits cannot be found upon earth, 
for there is nothing earthly in them. They have 
faculties which claim to be called divine, and which 
can never be shown to have come to man from any 
source but God. The nature in us which thinks, 
which knows, which lives, is celestial, and for that 
reason necessarily eternal. ... It cannot be de- 
stroyed." Further, Cicero represents the aged Cato 
as exclaiming, "0 happy day when I shall remove 
from this crowd of mortals, to go and join the divine 
assembly of the gods. Not only shall I meet again 
there the men who have lived godlike on earth; I 
shall find again my son, to whom these aged hands 
have performed the duties which in the order of 
nature he should have rendered to me. His spirit 
has never quitted me. He departed, turning his 
eyes upon me and calling on me, for that place where 
he knew I should soon come. If I have borne his 
loss with courage, it is not that my heart was un- 

25 



feeling, but I consoled myself with the thought that 
our separation would not be long." — Cicero. 

The foregoing thoughts, in connection with sci- 
ence and scientific demonstrations, such as wireless 
telegraphy, wireless telephony, optical instruments 
enabling one to see the lips of persons in conversa- 
tion several miles distant; sympathetic suggestion, 
subjective intelligence, telepathy, permitting the 
transmission of thought-force through ethereal vi- 
brations, connecting under supranormal conditions 
the fleshed with the unfleshed and psychic lucidity, 
of which the X-ray is a fine physical symbol — these, 
all these, reaching to the very verge of materialistic 
mortality, impinge upon, take hold of and prophesy 
of a future, never-ending existence. 

The recorded phenomena of remotest antiquity, 
the revelations of the Oriental races, the historic rec- 
ords of Brahmins, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, as 
well as the oracles of Greece and Rome, all abound 
in abundant testimonies of a conscious existence be- 
yond the silence of the tomb. 

In a special and most marvelous manner Christ 
"brought life and immortality to light," to the proud, 
ceremonial Pharisee and to the agnostic Sadducee. 
Long and often had the Judean Hebrew asked, "If 
a man die, shall he live again?" Long had the Jew- 
ish people sat in the shadow of darkness. "All our 
fathers were under the cloud," wrote Paul to the 
Corinthians. Therefore when Christ took the dead 
maid by the hand and said, "Arise, her spirit came 
back to her again;" and when they heard the com- 
manding voice, "Lazarus, come forth," they were not 
only startled, but convinced that the dead live again. 

After the resurrection of the Christ in his sub- 
jective or soul-body, being seen of Cephas, then of 
the twelve, then "about five hundred brethren at 
once," and then, exclaims Paul, "Last of all he was 
seen by me also." And further, when on his way to 
Damascus, commissioned by the Chief Priests, he 
saw at midday (as did the others journeying with 

26 



him) a light from heaven, above the brightness of 
the sun, shining about him, and out of the silence he 
heard a voice saying in the Hebrew tongue, "Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I said, Who 
art thou, Lord?" He replied, "I am Jesus whom 
thou persecutest. Rise, stand upon thy feet. I have 
appeared unto thee for the purpose of making thee 
a minister and a witness." 

Having been a witness of such astounding spir- 
itual manifestations, the apostle could well say: 
"For we know that if our earthly house of this 
tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of 
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." 

Again he says: "Coming to visions and revela- 
tions," he knew a man "caught up to the third 
heaven" into paradise, hearing there "unspeakable 
words." And while praying in the temple he de- 
clares that "he was in a trance." 

.Similar phenomena confirming the future life 
antedate and succeed Christianity. God is no re- 
specter of either persons or nations. 

Epimenides, contemporary of Solon, received, so 
he stated, divine revelations from the overshadow- 
ing spiritual heavens. 

Zeno affirmed that tutelary gods or guardian 
spirits inspired his speech and at times influenced 
his actions. 

Ulysses, in the eleventh book of the Odyssey, is 
declared to have visited the underworld region, con- 
versing with the spirit of Tyresius Elpenon and his 
own mother, receiving great consolation. 

Minucius Felix, a Roman author (about 189 A. 
D.), in the "Octavius," Chap, xxix, writes thus: 
"There are some sincere and vagrant spirits, de- 
graded from their heavenly vigor by their earthly 
stains and lusts. Now, these spirits, after having 
lost the simplicity of their nature by being weighed 
down and immersed in vices for a solace for their 
calamities, cease not, now that they are ruined 

21 



themselves, to ruin others ; and being depraved them- 
selves, to infuse into others the error of their deprav- 
ity. The poets know that these spirits are demons, 
and the philosophers discourse of them." 

Origen, the erudite Christian Father, writing 
against his atheistic antagonist, Celsus (200 A. D.), 
says: "Celsus has compared the miracles (spiritual 
manifestations) of Jesus to the tricks of jugglers 
and the magic of Egyptians, and there would in- 
deed be a resemblance between them if Jesus, like 
the practitioners of magic arts, had performed his 
works only for show or worldly gain." 

Tertulian, in his celebrated work, "De Anima," 
says: "We had a right to anticipate prophecies and 
the continuance of spiritual gifts, and we are now 
permitted to enjoy the gift of a prophetess. There 
is a sister among us who possesses the faculty of 
revelation. Commonly, during religious services, 
she falls into a trance, holding then communion with 
angels, beholding Jesus himself, hearing divine mys- 
teries explained, reading the hearts of some persons, 
and administering to such as require it." 

For three hundred years after the apostles' time, 
visions, trances, apparitions, healing gifts and spir- 
itual marvels abounded in all Christian societies 
and countries. And why should they not, since Jesus 
expressly said : "These signs shall follow them that 
believe"? And again, "Greater works than these 
shall ye do, for I go unto my Father." And still 
again: "Lo! I am with you alway unto the end of 
the world." 

Do these signs, these demonstrations, these mani- 
festations, visions and trances and gift of tongues, 
among which also was "the discerning of spirits" 
(see 1 Cor. xii) abound in churches or in the Chris- 
tian nations today? Far from it. As prophesied, 
they have "fallen away," fallen into divided sects, 
of which there are 157 in our own United States, 
including Christian Scientists; fallen into the whirl- 
pool of competition for pelf and power, into the 

28 



maelstrom of selfish worldliness, causing caste 
wranglings, blood-crimsoned battle-fields — murders 
on a massive and merciless scale ! 

Christ's promised gifts, be it said in sorrow, no 
longer abound in the churches. Atheistic material- 
ists, agnostics and honest, cultured doubters are ask- 
ing, why? since God and his laws are unchangeable. 
They are asking for clear, now-a-day evidences, for 
terse, positive, present-time proofs of a life here- 
after. Do they get them from popes, priests and 
parsons? Furthest from it possible. These can only 
point inquirers to the oracles of old, or remind them 
of the New Testament miracles and records. 

Then comes the prompt response : Those are not 
now-a-day evidences. They are ancient, long ago 
testimonies — testimonies by unknown authors — tes- 
timonies collected and booked long after their re- 
ported occurrences. And, further, they were "voted 
upon" by interested priests and bishops in Roman 
Catholic councils, and have during the warring cen- 
turies been manipulated, revised and re-revised. 
Medieval theology is today in a state of complete 
bankruptcy. 

Continuing, these free-thinking agnostics sardon- 
ically ask : "Are sincere prayers answered? Is God 
alive and present in the universe? Is Christ still 
mediatorially in the heavens? ^ Are angels still min- 
istering to mortals? Are spirits appearing and talk- 
ing as did Moses and Elias on the Mount of Trans- 
figuration?" 

No ! is the chilling, reluctant reply of the church- 
es; inspiration has ceased; the heavens are brass, 
the angels are voiceless. Spirit communications and 
revelations were booked ^ and sealed upon Patmos 
and the present — this stirring, investigating pres- 
ent — is left to feed upon the bony skeletons and am- 
biguous records of the grim, dust-buried past. Read- 
ing about the manna that fell and fed the wander- 
ing Israelites does not feed us today. None can live 
on the history of a thousand-year-old bread. Noah's 

29 



ark would not serve our modern commerce. The 
Biblical records of the fig and pomegranate that 
once ripened around Olive's mountains do not sat- 
isfy our normal wants today. As well strive to fill 
our arteries with the blood of those old Jewish 
patriarchs as our^ minds with their dull, formal, 
sacrificial ceremonies and dry religious experiences. 
It is morally impossible to import religion, or direct 
evidences of a future immortal life from the cylin- 
der libraries of Babylonia and Mesopotamia, or from 
the sepulchred dust of Asia Minor. And how vain 
the attempt to do so, when we are taught to pray, 
"Give us this day (mark the phrase, 'this day') our 
daily bread," the bread of life which cometh down 
each day out of heaven in the form of impressions, 
premonitions, inspirations, visions, and entrancing 
manifestations, giving light and "life to the world." 
"Where there is no vision," said the prophet, "the 
people perish." (Prov. xvi, 19.) 

Thankfully it may be said, God has never left the 
world without living witnesses, and among the wit- 
nesses today of a true Christianity and heavenly 
manifestations relating to immortality, are the 
American Shakers, a quiet, unassuming, humble 
people, keeping the commandments in the Christ 
spirit of love and truth. This body of real, Pente- 
costal Christians hold all things in common. They 
are noted for industry, cleanliness and hospitality. 
They are religious seven days in the week. Practic- 
ing the laws of hygiene, they live to be very aged. 
Thy have added to faith, knowledge. They oppose 
all wars, and follow peace ; and they retain the gos- 
pel-promised spiritual gifts. They are not very nu- 
merous, for, as foretold, "Strait is the gate and 
narrow is the way, and few there be that find it." 

But, once more, where are the dead? Momentous 
question! Where are the demonstrations, the irre- 
fragible evidences in this morning time of the twen- 
tieth century, proving beyond question the fact of a 

30 



future conscious life, in which identity is maintained 
and where we shall meet, recognize our loved ones, 
and know as we are known? After half a century 
and more of candid, conscientious research in the 
fields of the finer forces and among the higher psy- 
chic sciences, in both English-speaking and Oriental 
lands, my reply may be expressed in one word — 
"Spiritualism" using the word first as the direct 
antithesis of materialism, and secondly as the nou- 
menon underlying the phenomena of personal spirit 
presences, and demonstrating under proper condi- 
tions a converse with them. 

The investigating, advancing nineteenth century 
bequeathed to this twentieth century the newly dis- 
covered key — the mighty force that unlocked the 
door of the dreary tomb, rolled away the stone from 
the sepulchre, cabled the ocean of doubt and bridged 
the river of death, enabling mortals and immortals,, 
standing face to face, to affirm in the living now, 
the truth of life eternal beyond death, and withal, 
widening the seemingly limitless horizons of prog- 
ress out into measureless eternities. 

In its broadest, all-comprehensive sense, Spiritual- 
ism is a fact — a truth — a philosophy; and more, it 
is religion — religion itself, binding and rebinding 
the finite closer to the Infinite, and humanity to the 
very heart of Divinity. Thus considered in its high- 
est estate, it is the complement of the Christianity 
of the Christ, and relates to the long-delayed dis- 
pensation of the "second coming" — a continuous 
coming in the glory and in the power of angel min- 
istrants the manifestations of which are natural to 
the plane of their producing causes. 

The miracles in the Catholic Church from the 
first Christian centuries to St. Francis of Assisi, and 
later, were supported by the most incontrovertible 
evidence, by judicial depositions, and by authentic 
records; and these miracles, so-called, were plainly- 
spiritual manifestations, and were in perfect ac- 

21 



cord, psychically considered, with those occurring 
in the present. 

The scholarly Dr. T. J. Hudson, in his work, 
"The Law of Psychic Phenomena/' remarks: "The 
man who denies these facts is simply ignorant." They 
are the links in the chain of continuity that, uniting 
the past with the present, harmonize religion and 
science — the right and left hand angels of progress. 

The most eminent preacher of New York, Dr. 
Minot J. Savage, thus testifies: "After years of in- 
vestigation, a large number of the leading thinkers, 
students, authors, scientists, physical scientists, 
chemists, mathematicians — great minds — have come 
to believe that there is no possible way of explaining 
the phenomena which have been over and over again 
proven to be facts, without supposing that the per- 
sonalities had been in communication with the in- 
telligences of the invisible world." 

Only Sunday, March 5th, Bishop Fallows of Chi- 
cago, in an eloquent sermon, delivered in St. Paul's 
Episcopal Church, said: "There are undoubtedly 
genuine Spiritualistic phenomena. Otherwise the 
Bible itself would be untrue. They occurred in the 
past, and why not now, since so many materially 
inclined doubt a future life?" 

The late Bishop T. M. Clark of Providence, R. I., 
attended the seances of D. D. Home, and later years 
he informed both Robert Dale Owen and myself that 
the "phenomena were real and wonderful, destroy- 
ing the fear of death and reviving the gifts of the 
spirit." 

The Rt. Rev. W. H. Moreland, Bishop of Sacra- 
mento, Cal., stated, as reported in the press, that "as 
a Christian and a spiritual being, I believe the com- 
munications with the spiritual world are reasonable, 
and to be expected; indeed, that our whole religion 
reveals it and requires it, and that, as a matter of 
fact, we practice intercourse, consciously or uncon- 
sciously, with the spiritual world every day of our 
lives." 

32 



Bishop John P. Newman of the Methodist Church 
is a Spiritualist. This was shown in unmistakable 
language in a funeral sermon of an aged lady at No. 
561 Madison Avenue, New York. "Belief in spirit 
communication in some form," he declared, "is all 
but universal." He further said that "the spirits 
of the departed have all along returned to earth. 
The best of the Greeks and the Romans, and those 
eminent in the church for learning and piety, have 
cherished this common faith. It is reasonable and 
Biblical. . . . Celestial visions were given to 
Isaiah and the prophets, to Paul and the apostles, 
to Stephen and the martyrs, while Samuel and Moses 
and Elias were returned to earth. And why should 
we suppose that there is less interest in heaven for 
earth now than then? But do the communications 
between the two worlds continue to this day? Let 
us not be deterred in answering this question affirm- 
atively because a great Bible fact has been perverted 
for lust and lucre. ... It was the opinion of 
Wesley that Swedenborg was visited by the spirits 
of his departed friends, and Dr. Adam Clark be- 
lieved the same." 

The Rev. Adin Ballou, of Massachusetts, whom 
Count Tolstoi pronounced "one of the greatest and 
noblest men of America," both preached Spiritualism 
and wrote a book in defense of it. 

Professor Robert Hare, of the Pennsylvania Uni- 
versity, author of several discoveries in the physical 
sciences, among which was the caliomotor, praised 
by Professor Faraday, wrote a large volume entitled, 
"Spiritualism Scientifically Demonstrated." 

Alfred R. Wallace, the scientist and naturalist, 
pensioned by the Queen for his great attainments, 
says : "My position, therefore, is that the phenom- 
ena of Spiritualism in their entirety, do not require 
further confirmation. They are proved quite as well 
as any facts are proved in other sciences." 

Sir William Crookes, F. R. S., in his book, "Re- 
searches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism," states 

33 



at length his investigations of the fact of an inter- 
communion between the dwellers in the visible and 
the invisible worlds. 

The illustrious Victor Hugo was an outspoken 
Spiritualist. I once had the combined pleasure and 
honor of attending a seance in Paris where he was 
one of the personages present. When receiving a 
beautiful communication from his departed son, he 
wept in joy and gratitude. Well and wisely did he 
say: "When I go down to the grave I can say, like 
many others, 'I have finished my day's work;' but I 
cannot say that I have finished my life. My day will 
begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a 
blind alley ; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twi- 
light to open on the dawn." 

The distinguished F. W. H. Myers wrote, in his 
"Phantasms of the Living:" "not, then, with tears 
and lamentations should we think of the blessed dead. 
Rather, we should rejoice with them in their enfran- 
chisement, and know that they are still with us and 
minded to keep us as sharers in their joy. It is they, 
not we, who are working now. They are more ready 
to hear than we to pray; they guide us as with a 
cloudy pillar, but it is kindling into a steadfast fire." 

Professor Henry Kiddle, writer, author and super- 
intendent of the New York City schools for years, 
thus wrote : "Spiritualism not only demonstrates in 
a most positive manner the fact of a future conscious 
existence, but it is an encouraging help to all religious 
truth. . . . I have witnessed marvelous manifesta- 
tions through my son's organization, which I could 
not account for only upon the hypothesis that the 
agencies were spirits." 

Dr. Richard Hodgson, M. A., a prominent member 
of the British Society for Psychical Research, writes : 
"I believe I am in possession of incontrovertible facts 
which demonstrate immortality. I have witnessed 
some genuine supernormal phenomena, not explain- 
able by either fraud, illusion or suggestion, and whose 

34 



significance will have to be reckoned with by all men 
of science." 

The late S. C. Hall, writer, book reviewer, and 
founder of the London Art Journal, writes in his 
pamphlet: "As to the use of Spiritualism, it has 
made me a Christian. I humbly and fervently thank 
God that it has removed all my doubts." 

Hundreds of testimonies similar to the foregoing 
from those illustrations in science, or devoted to relig- 
ion, might be named, who would testify to the tre- 
mendous fact that the dead can and do consciously 
converse through sensitive intermediaries with the 
living. 

And what the moral trend — what the primary pur- 
pose of this spiritual dispensation ? Whatever it may 
have been, it certainly is not destructive, only so far 
as light displaces or disintegrates darkness. It was 
and is emphatically constructive and confirmatory of 
all the past revelations that have streamed down in 
golden radiance from the Christ-heavens of beatific 
blessedness. 

These cheering, uplifting messages from the high- 
er, invisible world are especially intended to impress 
upon men's minds that they are spirits now; that 
they are moral actors now; responsible beings now; 
that they are building now for eternity ; that they con- 
sciously survive death; that they take with them to 
the next stage of existence their deeply-imbedded 
characteristics, attainments, memories, in a word — 
identities, and can, under proper psychic environ- 
ments, converse with those still vestured in material 
bodies ; and, by so doing, mortals along the way may 
measurably learn of the conditions and employments 
of those existing in different states of consciousness 
and dwelling in different spheres, from the arch- 
angels and angels down the moral decline to those 
peopling the dark Tartarian realms of remorse, an- 
guish and intensest mental suffering. 

The philosophy of Spiritualism puts character be- 
fore creed, and reaffirms the apostolic doctrine that 

35 



"whatsoever men sow, that they must also reap ;" that 
there is no escape from just and deserved punish- 
ment; that repentance and prayer are indispensable 
duties and it seeks to instill and thrill into men's 
minds the principles of co-operation, of equal oppor- 
tunities for all and it, moreover, inculcates the sub- 
lime ideal of universal harmony by establishing bet- 
ter and higher social conditions here and now — con- 
ditions that must ultimate in a practical and Christ- 
like altruism — a present spiritual realization. Heav- 
en's rest is not idleness; the soul's activities are in- 
tensified by the transition termed "Death." The fu- 
ture life is a social life, a constructive life, a retri- 
butive life, and a progressive life, where the spirit 
sweeps onward and upward in glory transcending 
glory. 

In that hour of death, Spiritualism does not say, 
"Good-night," but rather gives the glad assurance 
of a most welcome "Good-morning" just across the 
crystal river. It does not drape the mourner's home 
in gloom, but lifts the grim curtain, allowing the sor- 
rowing to hear responsive words of undying affection 
from those who have gone one step higher into some 
one of the Father's heavenly mansions. When 
Christ's Christianity prevails — when nominal Chris- 
tians become more Christlike, and nominal Spiritual- 
ists more spiritual, the chasm of Shibboleths and 
medieval dogmatisms will be bridged, estranged 
hands will be clasped, unsympathizing hearts will be 
warmed by the Pentecostal flames of divine love, and 
angels will daily walk and talk with mortals as pres- 
ent-day proofs of immortality. 

This restless, pushing twentieth century, largely 
immersed in materialism and a conscienceless com- 
mercialism, needs a new Christ in its temple; or, 
rather, a nearer, purer-purposed approach to the old 
Christ-spirit, which inspires and demands integrity, 
moral principle, brotherhood, reverence, obedience, 
tongues of fire, open vision, and a heavenly baptism 
of life — a new life — a higher life inflowed from those 

36 



seers and sages, whose presence make radiant the 
homes of the glorified gods. 

Life, springing into conscious existence from non- 
life, is as unthinkable as the derivation of something 
from nothing. Neither man nor his naturally en- 
nobling religious emotions, originated from the 
chance-force friction of atoms, nor from any blind, 
polarized interblendings of unreasoning molecules. 
These of themselves could never produce such desir- 
able fruitage as morality and religion — that relig- 
ion, pure and undefiled, which makes for righteous- 
ness and heaven here and now, and for beatific 
blessedness hereafter. 

It is true that finite, limited man, seeing through 
a glass darkly, has never seen God; and so no child 
ever saw the mother who cared for him. Neither 
the garments nor the material body constitute the 
mother; and yet the child feels, loves, trusts the 
mother. And so conscious, rational man believes 
in and trusts God. The invisible is ever the author 
of the visible. 

Tutelary divinities, supersensuous influences and 
conscious spiritual intelligences from angelic alti- 
tudes adown the scale of being to demons and de- 
moniac obsessions, are all about us ; and yet, if men 
as moral actors accept and strenuously appropriate 
the good and true and the beautiful they may make 
this life now an Eden of ecstasy — a statelier garden 
of enchanting loveliness where industry is animated 
and sanctified by love, and where men under the 
dominant reign of love may and will, like Enoch of 
old, consciously walk with God. Transfiguration is 
just as possible now as in apostolic times. "Come 
up higher" is the voice of God within. Come up 
higher, is the trumpet call of thousands of Christ's 
who have lived, suffered, fought, conquered, received 
the white-stone seal, and are now crowned victors 
in the celestial realms of a paradisaic immortality. 

Be sure, a present intercommunion with the in- 
visible hosts of heaven does not prove immortality 

37 



in the sense of endlessness. This cannot, in the na- 
ture of things, be absolutely demonstrated. But if 
Moses and Elias, a thousand years more or less after 
their death, appeared on the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion, and "talked" with the disciples of Jesus; if 
one of the ancient prophets appeared to John on the 
Isle of Patmos, and conversed with him ; if many of 
the great, inspired personages of the long-ago past 
have reappeared, robed in spotless white, and spoken 
in tongues of fire to mortals now living, the proof 
seems almost absolute that immortality is the glori- 
ous destiny of humanity. 

When this glad hour comes, empires, kingdoms, 
republics will constitute one country, and the 
thought of that one country will not be "mine," 
"mine" for selfish ends — but ours, and yours, to 
appropriate for holy uses. Our homes will then be 
the universe, and our rest wherever a human heart 
beats in sympathy with our own, and the highest 
happiness of each will consist in aiding and blessing 
others. The soil will be as free for all to cultivate 
as the air that we breathe. Gardens will blossom 
and bear fruit for the most humble. Fountains will 
spring up by the wayside, and orchards and fruit 
trees will invite passing wayfarers. Orphans will 
find homes of tenderest sympathies. The tanned 
brows of toiling millions will be wreathed with the 
roses of industry and peace, and the great, throb- 
bing family of humanity will be obedient to the law 
of love, equality and liberty, — thus establishing the 
kingdom of God upon earth. 



THE REJECTION. 

So ends the "rejected" paper, the rejection, cler- 
ical-inspired, being the natural fruitage of priest- 
craft and theological creeds. 

It is but justice here to state that the secretary of 

38 



this British PhilosoDhical Society, Professor E. Hull, 
LL. D., F. R. S., F. G. S., exemplified the gentlemen 
of culture and fairmindedness all through this ex- 
traordinary transaction. 

It should be further stated that the world-re- 
nowned microscopist and scientist, Professor Lionel 
S. Beale, F. R. C. P., F. R. S., F. R. M. S., etc., 
contributor to and member of this Institute, called 
upon me personally a few days after the official re- 
jection of this "paper" upon immortality, to express 
his "regrets that the paper was not read." Other 
members of this Philosophical Society very gra- 
ciously called upon me, or sent personal "notes" ex- 
pressing their regrets that the "paper" was not read 
and discussed. But as their notes were marked 
"Private," I am not at liberty to mention their 
names. Canon Girdlestone neither called upon me 
as a penitent, nor has he, so far as I know, expressed 
any regret at the decision of the council, of which 
at the time he was leader and potentate. Wisely did 
the old Hebrew prophet exclaim, "0 priests, ye have 
been a snare on Mizpah. ... Ye teach for hire, 
and your prophets (seers) divine for money." 

Persecution and the sword have ever accompanied 
this churchianic Christianity, which is more Pauline 
than Christlike, and more popelike than Pauline — 
in a word,demoniac. This class of hidebound priests, 
steeped in bigotry, will be the obsessing, vexing 
spirits in the future world. Intermediary sensitives 
should look out for them. They are not to be trusted 
in matters concerning their craft. 

Guizot, the eminent French statesman and his- 
torian, writing of the superstition and bigotry of the 
church, used these telling words: "When any war 
arose between power and liberty, the Christian 
church always planted itself on the side of power 
against liberty." In the same line of wisdom, the 
public press termed "good gray poet, " Walt Whit- 
man, wrote: — 



39 



"0 to struggle against great odds, to meet enemies 

undaunted, 
To be entirely alone with them, to find out how 

much one can stand! 
To look strife, torture, prison, popular odium face 

to face, 
To mount the scaffold, to advance to the muzzles of 

guns with perfect nonchalance! 
To be indeed a God!" 

Cherishing only the kindest and most fraternal 
feelings towards the members of the Victoria Insti- 
tute and Philosophical Society of Great Britain, and 
wishing them abundant success in whatever is just 
and good and true, and as a parting salute, I bid 
them farewell in these lines: — 

"And when my fainting heart 
Desponds and murmurs at its adverse fate, 
Then quietly the angePs lips part, 

Whispering softly, 'Wait!' 

'Patience!' she sweetly saith — 
'The Father's mercies never come too late; 
Gird thee with patient strength and trusting faith 

And firm endurance — 'Wait!' 

Angel, behold, I wait! 
Wearing the thorny crown through all life's hours, 
Wait till the hand shall ope th' eternal gate, 

And change the thorns to flowers." 



40 



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